We're now entering the next step: hospice care.
Even when I saw him today, he told me he wants me to file a tobacco lawsuit on his behalf since it's what he's practically dying from. I humored him and told him I would, but let's be honest here: he not only smoked of his own volition, he was well aware of the health risks, yet chose to continue smoking anyway, even despite family urging him to quit, so I'd have absolutely no case whatsoever.
I, on the other hand, am already feeling a sense of hopelessness and loss . . . he wasn't exactly the Ward Cleaver kind of dad (I'd in addition to Frank Costanza and Frank Barone, he also has some Archie Bunker undertones), but he's still the only dad I've ever had, and I do love him as such - his will probably be the first significant death that will ever have a real affect on me; my mom on the other hand has already been through a number of losses: her grandparents, her parents, and as of this year one of her cousins . . . if anything, she seems to be ready to be the strong one for me when his time comes
Yep. Started when he was 13, he's now three months shy of turning 78. Throughout my lifetime, he tried multiple times to quit, but he could never stick with it until about three years ago when having to be hooked up to oxygen pretty much forced him to finally quit cold turkey, since so much as a single spark is enough to cause a fireball of an explosion within the confines of an area drenched in oxygen.I take he was a smoker, right? COPD, emphysema, etc
Even when I saw him today, he told me he wants me to file a tobacco lawsuit on his behalf since it's what he's practically dying from. I humored him and told him I would, but let's be honest here: he not only smoked of his own volition, he was well aware of the health risks, yet chose to continue smoking anyway, even despite family urging him to quit, so I'd have absolutely no case whatsoever.
I'm not going to lie, I have some suspicions . . . over these past three months, I've noticed that whenever he's been in a nursing facility, he's done pretty well . . . when I visited him at one such facility about a couple of weeks ago, he looked almost like his old self: he had put weight back on, I could actually hear him when he spoke, he was clearly in decent shape. But, whenever he's been in a hospital, suddenly he seems to be knocking on death's door . . . what are they doing to him differently in the hospitals that he seems worse there than when he's been a nursing home? Something doesn't make sense to me.There’s still a chance through some miracle he may pull through. But if he gets put on a ventilator, that’s usually it.
It was a mixed blessing for me, my dad went in the hospital and was gone in 2 1/2 weeks. He didn’t have to suffer long.
In all honesty, my mom is totally indifferent to this. Theirs has been a very tumultuous marriage (again, they've bickered like the Costanzas or Barones all my life), and she actually got quite used to his job as a truck driver, because she basically got a sense of freedom while he'd be traveling cross-country. The main reason she even stayed with him was because she didn't want a nasty divorce to scar me like her previous divorces did on my older siblings . . . that, and she depended on him for financial stability; otherwise, she had told me if that wasn't the case, she would've left him the first opportunity that presented itself.But I do know the sense of loss you may feel (I still hope I’m wrong). Now you need to be strong for your mom.
I, on the other hand, am already feeling a sense of hopelessness and loss . . . he wasn't exactly the Ward Cleaver kind of dad (I'd in addition to Frank Costanza and Frank Barone, he also has some Archie Bunker undertones), but he's still the only dad I've ever had, and I do love him as such - his will probably be the first significant death that will ever have a real affect on me; my mom on the other hand has already been through a number of losses: her grandparents, her parents, and as of this year one of her cousins . . . if anything, she seems to be ready to be the strong one for me when his time comes